7
Plans
The next two shuttles landed safely as well, smack in the middle of the bullseyes painted on the clay landing pads. Everyone got off and moved their property into their rooms, then began to unload the cargo, starting with the dozen new species of fruit and nut trees and several new animal species: honeybees, catfish, trout, miniature pigs, and two small, immature dairy cows. The mammals required considerable care, as they had been partially sedated throughout the last week of weightlessness and completely sedated for the landing.
Shortly after sunset everyone gathered in the Great Room of Habitat 3 for a big dinner. Twenty-four people filled the room; it made them realize how small the space really was. Will received a steady stream of visitors or went to visit other tables. He and Ethel were careful to sit with Gaston and Eve Gilmartin, two of the three French astronauts on Columbus 3
“Vous êtes tres bienvenue ici,” said Will to them.
“Oh, you speak French!” exclaimed Gaston, surprised, in French.
“Not too much,” replied Will, continuing in French. “My Russian is better, and Ethel’s French is pretty good.”
“How delightful,” Gaston.
“I’m delighted that we finally have a female physician here,” Ethel said to Eve in French. “It will be a great help.”
“Thank you.” Eve smiled warmly. “I look forward to the challenges of this place. In particular, I want to watch Marshall’s growth closely. On the flight out I was studying some rare children’s disorders that affect bones, muscles, and the cardio-vascular system in particular. I suspect some of that expertise may find some use.”
“Thank you; but I hope it proves of no relevance, if you know what I mean!”
The two women laughed. “I’m also interested in studying the problem of Martian dust. Several people appear to have developed allergic reactions after prolonged exposure. It’s dangerous stuff.”
“We need that,” said Will. “He turned to Gaston and switched back to English. “So, your expertise is animal husbandry.”
“Yes; the cows and pigs are my responsibility.” He smiled slightly. “I’m looking forward to the work. Maybe there will be other baby mammals here.”
“How are the calves doing on the moon?”
Gaston smiled. “That depends on your perspective. They have weak legs, thin bones, and weak hearts. Bad news about the health effects of gravity, though lunar cows will probably make better veal! The next step is to try some drugs and various countermeasures like weights to see whether the effects of lunar gravity can be reversed.”
“It’s fascinating research.”
“Yes, quite. I didn’t know you were following it.”
“Not closely, but anything that might have implications for us I tend to pay attention to.”
“Especially anything relating to your son, I presume. He’s a cute baby!”
“Thank you. He seems to have inherited our good facial features. Let’s hope he does the same where character is concerned!”
“Ah, but that is so much harder to arrange!” and they laughed.
Will rose and walked to the buffet table to get another cup of coffee. He stopped at a nearby table on his way back, where Patrice Domkowski, the other Frenchman, was sitting with Lisa Kok, Karol Havlicek, and Pavel Rudenkov. As he approached the table, Lisa said “Commander, can we get another bottle of wine?”
Will saw that their bottle was empty. “I’m sorry; that’s all we have for this meal,” he said. He turned to Patrice. “Patrice, I assume you know Dr. David Alaoui.”
“Oh, yes indeed. In fact, he asked me to convey his greetings to you.” Patrice offered a hand; Will shook it. “He asked me specifically to shake your hand on his behalf, and tell you that all is well with him and his family.”
“Thank you. David and I are in touch about twice a month. As you may have heard, we’ve been close friends for a long time.”
“Yes, he told me! There was that incident where you rescued him at Tycho, too. David was a mentor to me, you might say. He encouraged me at several points in my career, including when this mission came along. David’s a central figure in the Mars establishment in Europe, now.”
“So I’ve gathered. Now your last name, Domkowski; is it of Polish origin?”
“Yes indeed. My grandparents settled in Paris after the second world war. As you may know, France absorbed many emigrants then. David’s mother’s family arrived a bit later from Morocco.”
“Yes, I know something about the subject. I hope you enjoy your work here. There’s a lot of climatology to do.”
“I’m particularly interested in Mars’s early climate. As you know, there’s a computer model being built by a group of European scientists. We’re working on models of the climates of Earth and Venus as well. I’m hoping we can recover ancient gas samples from various places, maybe even from the fossiliferous shales, so we can get a better handle on the evolution of the atmosphere. We need to reconstruct the climatic cycles in detail.”
“Yes, the thermals and ice ages caused by orbital eccentricity and axial tilt. The little we’ve figured out here so far has generated several entirely new fields of study, like eobiology. What do you think of the rumors that France intends to send a mission to Venus?”
Patrice smiled. “I hope it’s true! I’ll be one of the first to sign up! The word I hear from my friends in Paris indicates it is likely. Probably France will invite other European nations to participate as well.”
“Do you think that’s why they bought the Amazonis?”
“Maybe. The scenarios I’ve heard involve sending two ITVs, one automated cargo vehicle, and either two or three Lifter-As. The ITVs would go into an elliptical orbit where the delta-vee for the return flight is low; maybe one kilometer per second. They’d dock and spin, just like on our flight out. The automated cargo vehicle would be sent ahead and would have atmospheric probes and telerovers for surface exploration. The boosters would use methane and oxygen propellants, and one would be sufficient to push one ITV back to Earth. There would be four crew.”
“That sounds feasible and very safe. Now that we have this transportation system, it would be a shame if it weren’t used to visit Venus and various Earth-crossing asteroids. Besides, the more vehicles manufactured, the cheaper they become. Good luck with your ambitions, Dr. Dumkowski.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
Will walked back to his table. As he sat, Dr. Rosa Stroger rose from her table and walked by. “Commander, I just want to stop by and tell you how impressed I am by the Outpost.”
“Thank you! We’ve put a few hours into developing it, you could say.”
“Indeed you have, over the last four and a half years. I had done three-dimensional virtual walk-throughs several times and felt I was familiar with the place, but nothing compares with walking through the actual facility. It’s pretty big. We won’t feel crowded in here.”
“It’ll be even more spacious with Habitat 4, an additional five greenhouses, and a connection to the Geological Storage Facility. It’s not bad, but you get cabin fever if you don’t go outside every few sols; and you need to go outside for the exercise anyway. Have you seen the proposed site for the nukes?”
She nodded. “Neal and I went for a walk a bit before sunset. We walked along the eastern side of Boat Rock and saw the stakes marking the future sites of the sandbag corrals. I like the plan; it should work well.”
“Excellent. We can’t wait to get those nukes. They’ll revolutionize exploration here.”
“Not to mention the level of power available to the Outpost. It’ll be an incredible change. I’m delighted to be a part of it.”
“You and Neal are committed to at least two cycles, right?”
“Yes. You can’t leave the nukes without an expert, and that means the experts can’t rotate through less often that every two cycles. Neal’s thrilled to be here, anyway.”
“He’s an excellent geologist. We’re delighted to have both of you here.”
“Thank you.” She offered her hand. “Looking forward to working with you.”
“The same.” They shook, then she walked over to the dessert table.
Will sat. Marshall was asleep against Ethel; she seemed happy for the first time in a while. He leaned over. “How are you?”
“Oh, fine! Feeling much better. Marshall’s not happy with the formula, though.”
“He’ll adapt. The medication’s already working.”
“It seems!”
“Good.” He leaned over and kissed his wife. Then he looked around the room to see whether it was time to start his talk. Most people were done eating and were getting coffee. The exception, he noted, was the table with Patrice Dumkowski; looking closely, he saw a new bottle of wine sitting on it, already half gone. And he had told them not to get another one. He rose and walked over.
“This is a new bottle, right?” he said to Lisa Kok, who happened to be sitting closest to the bottle.
“Yes, Commander; oh, I apologize. Pavel didn’t hear you, I think.”
“Hear the Commander say what?” replied Pavel. He looked up at Will. His slurred speech and vacant expression spoke volumes.
“I asked all of you not to drink any more wine. Now we have to ground all four of you until 12 noon, at least. That’s the earliest the safety rules will allow someone drinking three or more glasses of wine to make an EVA.”
“Oh, but Commander, the EVA rules are ideals anyway, they don’t have to be followed strictly,” replied Karol. His speech sounded slightly slurred as well.
“Well, here we follow them pretty closely. I want to be sure we’re all safe here. It’s a long way to a professionally equipped hospital. So we don’t cut safety corners on Mars.” He sounded neutral, matter of fact, rather than didactic; he didn’t want to offend. But Pavel was not pleased.
“Okay, suit yourself,” he replied.
Will walked back to his table, feeling the anger rising in him but keeping it under control. Ethel saw the tension on his face. “What is it?”
“Pavel, Karol, and Lisa are all drunk because they grabbed an extra bottle of wine. I grounded them for tomorrow morning’s EVAs.”
“Oh, that’s a problem.”
Madhu came over. Shall we get started?”
Will nodded. “I’m not going to say much, though.”
He rose and walked to the end of the Great Room away from the tables. “Can I have your attention, please,” he exclaimed. “This is my opportunity to welcome all of you officially to Mars. I had planned to announce various administrative arrangements and talk about priorities, but we’ve all had a very enjoyable evening and I think it’s better to turn to the festivities instead. Tomorrow morning after breakfast, rather than going outside to continue unloading the shuttles, I think we’ll start with a staff meeting to talk about our plans. I look forward to discussing things with all of you, then.
“Now, we’ll turn to something you might not expect at an outpost far from Earth: a little culture. It’s amazing how many of you have artistic talents. We’ll now see the results.”
Will walked back to his table and Madhu moved forward to introduce the first act. As Will sat, Ethel leaned over and whispered, “that was a Solomonic decision, my dear.”
“Well, they’re too drunk to listen to me. Tomorrow morning they’ll be sober, but not sober enough to don a pressure suit. It’s the best solution I could think of.”
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After breakfast the next morning everyone drank a second cup of coffee while Will described his ideas for the next eighteen months. “Since we’re now fresh from our night’s rest, I’m giving you a longer version of the material I planned to cover last night, complete with visuals on the screen.” He pointed to the screen, which already had his first slide on it. “Mars currently has twenty-three adults and one child. It is one of the most educated and highly trained groups you can find. This group, to survive and achieve its goals, must be highly productive, so I want to structure this place to maximize work satisfaction, a sense of empowerment, and a feeling of accomplishment. At the same time, coordination is essential, so there has to be a focus on team building and coordination as well. Finally, there has to be a sense of progress and advancement, which means the people who have been here longer generally have more responsibility; this gives people an incentive to stay and advance.
“With that in mind, I propose to create a series of nested spheres of activity, each of which is a team of at least two with a coordinator. The second person of the team may be the assistant in some circumstances, depending on time allocations; and is the backup. The sections—the smaller units of responsibility—are nested inside departments.
“For example, Gaston Gilmartin is the Coordinator of Animal Husbandry, with Lisa Kok as the second; Lisa is the Coordinator of Horticulture, with Gaston as the second and Madhu Gupta-Anderson as the third; Madhu is coordinator of food services, with Lisa as second and Gaston as third. I should add that I am the fourth member of that team. These three sections together are part of the Department of Food Production and Services, coordinated by Madhu.
“Another group of responsibilities is Construction and Fabrication, the overall coordinator of which will be Ethel MacGregor, though while she is on maternity leave the coordinator is Paul Renfrew. Within that department we have chemical and plastic fabrication, coordinated by Ethel, with Paul as second and Lisa Kok as third; small object fabrication, textiles, and crafts, coordinated by Lisa Kok, with Madhu as second and Ethel as third; metal fabrication, coordinated by Paul with Pavel Rudenkov as second and Ethel as third; construction, with Pavel as coordinator, Paul as second, and Karol Havlicek, and myself as fourth.
“A third department is Maintenance, coordinated overall by Rick Page. Within it is the nuclear equipment section, coordinated by Rosa Stroger, with Rick as the second; the space vehicles section, with Rick as coordinator, Karol Havlicek as second and Rosa as third; the general mechanical section, with Karol as coordinator, Rick as second, Ethel, myself, and Rosa as thirds; and cleaning, coordinated by Karol, with Lisa and myself as seconds.
“Fourth, we have Science and Exploration, coordinated by Jerry McCord, which is divided into seven groups. Surface exploration will be coordinated by Roger Anderson, with Jerry and Érico Lopes as seconds. Geology will be coordinated by Érico, with Neal Stroger as second and Roger, Jerry, Érico, and myself as seconds. The Geology Laboratory will be coordinated by Lal Shankaraman, with Neal as second. Meteorology and climatology will be coordinated by Patrice Dumkowski, with Érico as the second. Exobiology will be coordinated by Monika Yevtuchenko, with Linda Dubois as second. Prospector maintenance will be coordinated by Koyo Takenaka, with Carmen Segovia as second; Prospector utilization will be coordinated by Carmen, with Koyo as second and myself, Ethel, and Monika as thirds.
I am inaugurating a Department of Human Services, with three sections: Medicine, co-coordinated by Shinji Nagatani and Eve Gilmartin; child care and education, coordinated by Ethel, with Madhu as second; and the arts, coordinated by Madhu.
There are two miscellaneous sections: Phobos, Deimos, and Embarcadero, coordinated by Érico, with Paul as second. It is both a maintenance and an exploration matter, so it fits into neither department. The other is Exports, coordinated by me. The Exports Section will have as its purpose to find things we can sell to Earth and near-Earth space.
Altogether we have five departments and twenty-three sections. I’ll meet with the departmental heads monthly to assign how many hours each person devotes to each department, and the department heads will meet with the section heads or the staff to divide up the hours. People will not, by any means, be limited to their own departments or sections. Anyone who wants to explore, for example, should come to Jerry or me, and we’ll schedule them; the second will then take over the section temporarily, or if the second is seeking a temporary assignment his or her responsibilities will devolve upon the first or the third, or someone else. I hope by the end of our time here, every section will have a third member able to perform the duties. We need considerable flexibility in case we have a crisis.
“I hope this system will produce balance, but we may need to replace it with something simpler if it doesn’t work. Any questions?”
Will looked around at the audience. Some seemed puzzled or concerned; some seemed flattered. In reality, the division of work was meant to soothe egos as much as anything. But it could also give people power bases instead and force department heads to bargain with section heads about everything. He’d have to be vigilant to make sure the plan worked.
“In practice, how will anything get done?” asked Roger.
“Someone with an idea that affects the section only will run it past the section; if it involves resources across the department, the department head; if it involves resources from several departments, the person will talk to the relevant heads of the departments or to me. I’m not talking about long meetings, necessarily. The principle is for everyone to have an idea what’s going on and what ideas will fit in with others. We all have dozens of ideas, but we can’t implement them at once.”
“How will we all know what ideas are being considered by everyone?” asked Rick.
“Sometimes when I hear about something, I’ll ask for a quick report by email to be shared with everyone via the listservers or the outpost forums. Once a month we’ll all sit down for two hours and share quick reports. I’ll be making rounds two mornings a week to visit and see how everything is going.”
“Just like on Pax Station,” commented Jerry. The principal space station in low earth orbit now had a staff of thirty-six, and a similar system had been implemented there a year earlier.
“Other comments?” asked Will.
“This is a common enough system for organization; it’s worth a try,” replied Pavel.
“I want to know more about exports,” replied Jerry, frowning. “There’s nothing like that at Pax or Shackleton.”
“True. The Exports Section represents our commitment to Mars as a contributor to the economy of humanity. Its purpose is not to cover the costs of Mars exploration and settlement because that is impossible now, and will probably remain impossible for a century. Nor is its purpose to take significant resources away from exploration of this world; exploration remains our focus. Rather, it represents our long-term commitment to make Mars an economic player, which it will inevitably become some day. Who knows, three hundred years from now it may be a huge contributor to a solar-system economy and a major proof that humanity has achieved a stage-two civilization, one that has grown beyond its home world. But those are very long term goals; right now the Exports Section is a very small, token start.”
“Interesting,” grumbled Roger, disapprovingly.
“Other comments and questions?” asked Will. There were none. “Alright. I thought I’d now offer what I understand to be our common goals for the next eighteen months. This does not represent a mandate to the departments and sections, but a summary of existing goals. In a few cases I might highlight some possibilities for further consideration.
“Food Production and Services: The big goal is to raise the number of greenhouses from four to nine, which should be able to feed nine to fifteen people. We already have most of the soil made and the greenhouses are on their way; two are in the Alba waiting to be unloaded. We have quite a few new animal and plant species to get established here and add to our ecologies, and new ecologies to differentiate from the existing ones and establish. To these goals, it seems to me, we need to add a few longer term goals: we need to become self-sufficient in food, even theoretically, possibly during Columbus 4 or 5; we need a very large pressurized open space for our own recreational use and for agriculture; and eventually we need to be able to make greenhouses of native Martian materials instead of importing them. To what extent we can pursue these during Columbus 3, remains to be determined.
“Construction and Fabrication: The big goal for Columbus 3, after we set up the new habitat and greenhouses, is construction of a pressurized facility capable of housing people safely and comfortably. This is a very demanding goal for us and will require about four full time people. It will also strain our existing equipment to make the steel, plastics, and chemicals the facility will need. If this goal is achieved, we may never need to import another habitat, so it is immensely important.
“Maintenance: The big goal for Columbus 3 is to set up the two nuclear reactors coming on the automated cargo vehicles. Because each one is mobile and able to power an entire expedition, they are vital to expanding our exploration plans and maintaining our power output in dust storms. Secondarily, we will be developing our spaceport and our ability to maintain the shuttles.
“Science and exploration: if all the automated cargo vehicles arrive safely, we will soon have two more rangers and a second conestoga, able to mount a second independent expedition. A priority will be the North Pole, which we should be able to reach; the nuke will be essential for the effort, as it will allow the melting of large quantities of ice to build ramps up the cliffs of the layered terrain. The South Pole may be possible as well; we’ll need about three months to reach it. Beyond that, it is possible for us to build Route 1 in both directions at once and have the two expeditions meet on the other side of Mars, thereby constructing a dirt track all the way around the planet. Hence the unofficial name of the route: the Circumnavigational Trail. This will open up much of Mars to exploration. Roads to the tops of one or more volcanoes may be possible as well. We may be able to build a road out of the other end of the Mariner Canyons, making the canyon into a transportation conduit.
“Scientifically, I know Lal wants to start drilling one of the layered terrains; this is a very important goal if our equipment can handle the cold. Linda and Monika want a deeper drill hole in the former northern seabed to search for fossils. It’s not clear we can do both and explore, unless we can use Prospectors or the Sunwings to maintain the drillers. Our geologists want to sample all the remaining terrain units by Prospector or in person. In a few weeks we’re going to try hooking and moving a Prospector; if that works, it means we can move them around more effectively than we had thought.
“Services: The sick bay is being upgraded and a major study will be made on the health of young mammals, including one unexpected young human. We have been studying Martian rabbits for eight generations; we’ll be studying calves as well. Child care and art are new areas of endeavor and it will be interesting to see what results with them.
“I don’t anticipate we’ll be visiting Phobos or Deimos until Columbus 3 is ready for departure. Finally, exports: when the three automated cargo vehicles fly back to Earth in two months, we are prepared to fill them with twenty-four tonnes each from the Martian surface, a mix of argon, nitrogen, and fossiliferous rocks that we’ve been saving up for the last ten months. The Lifters accompanying them can each carry twenty-four tonnes of methane. Thus we can supply all the fuel for Columbus 4. This represents a savings of about one hundred fifty million dollars, about eight percent of our total cost. The surplus methane—about thirty tonnes—can be sold to the moon for seventy million dollars or to people in low Earth orbit for about thirty million. It is a very simple, easy task for us to accomplish, though we still don’t have a green light to do it. If we get permission, we’ll start accumulating exports for two years from now as well.
“That’s the plan for the next eighteen months. No doubt there will be many specific objectives to add to it as we go. There’s one other dimension of this columbiad that’s important to mention, though; the social. I hope that all twenty-three of us can get to know each other well and become friends. Columbus 1 and 2 gradually melded together into close-knit groups. The social dimension of this place has emerged as far more important than anyone would have imagined. We are all the company we will have for a year and a half, and for those of us who stay, a close working relationship is extremely important. Yestersol I was commenting with someone about that and the statement was made that the original plan for the six Columbus missions was not to settle Mars, but to establish a beachhead. Well, we have settled Mars; that’s the reality of the situation. We are residents of a planet as well as of Aurorae Outpost. Like it or not, we have started to create a common Martian society and culture, and we will carry it forward in the next eighteen months. I’m confident the results will be remarkable.”
Will looked around the room. People were chewing on the review of the plans. It was on the outpost website, but when reviewed in this way, it seemed incredible that they were trying so much. “Questions and comments?” he asked.
“How long will it take us to go all the way around Mars?” asked Jerry. The idea obviously fascinated him.
“With the nukes, we’ll be able to cover a thousand kilometers per expedition per month. Mars is 21,000 kilometers around and we already have 2,500 klicks of route cleared along Marineris. Assuming it takes a month to get out of Noctis Labyrinthus, and assuming we travel an extra twenty percent to visit geological sites and such, and assuming both expeditions are working on the route, we’re talking about twelve months of continual work. So it is possible to complete it in the next eighteen months.”
Érico whistled. “We may circumnavigate the equator and reach both poles during this columbiad.” They had started using “columbiad” to refer to the roughly twenty-six months separating the arrivals of the Columbus missions from Earth.
“And we could do the drilling as well, if we ship a solar power unit to the drill site to power it,” added Roger. “The big problem will be maintaining the drill. That may require regular trips to the drill by people. Prospectors generally are not adequate for work of that sort.”
“We have new Prospectors and new software,” replied Koyo. “The P-250 model is supposed to have the strength of a human. So we should give them a try.”
“I’m not sure whether this is the place to raise this matter,” said Lal. “But I’ve been examining the latest Sunwing reconnaissance of Candor Chasma. In addition to the layered sedimentary deposits and the eolian deposits, there appear to be some pretty remarkable intrusive igneous complexes accessible in the escarpments. I think we have to make a detour to Candor. It’ll take a month.”
Will nodded. “I think a case can be made. I’d take the proposal to Roger; he’s coordinator of surface exploration. My guess is that in about a week we’ll be holding a big meeting of the folks involved in expeditions and we’ll be setting priorities. Houston’s priority list is ready, but it’s up to us to decide whether to stick to it or propose modifications.”
Lal nodded. Lisa raised her hand, which no one else had done. Will nodded.
“Striving for self-sufficiency is a good idea,” she began. “But the term has different meanings. We can cut back on our plant diversity, focus on a few, higher productivity crops, and raise all the food we need, but the diet will be pretty boring. I assume that’s not what you mean; there’s no reason we shouldn’t be importing steak, champagne, caviar, and a few other things we won’t be raising here for the next few decades. On the other hand, we probably need to set aside at least part of one greenhouse as a kind of park, because I sense all of us miss the chance to be immersed in greenery.”
“Here, here!” agreed Paul.
“Yes, you are right about self-sufficiency,” agreed Will. “I didn’t mean we should decrease plant diversity. If anything, we need to increase the variety in our diet. I’d like us to move toward increased diversity and self-sufficiency; that’s what I mean. Columbus 1 arrived here with 5.1 tonnes of food and other consumables for the flight back to Earth and 5.4 tonnes for consumption here on the surface; 10.5 tonnes for the six of us, or 1.75 tonnes per person. For Columbus 2, the greenhouses allowed us to cut the total to 1.25 tonnes each. With Columbus 3, we’re down to one tonne per person, a savings of eighteen tonnes. I don’t mind importing half a tonne per person of steaks, champagne, computers, clothes, or whatever. But if this place is to grow, we have to acquire greater capacity.”
Lisa nodded; she understood his point. “Regarding a recreational area, I’d say yes, design one,” added Will. “If you create an orchard area and all the trees are in pots on wheels, we could move the trees together for a few hours a sol at lunchtime and at night. I suspect there are ways to create dual-use areas.”
“Oh, definitely,” agreed Lisa.
“Then do it,” commented Shinji. “I’ve been here over four years, and I crave a green space. As a physician, I know it’s important.”
“Definitely, let’s add that to the plans,” agreed Will.